Starting points

The other man on the mound was every bit as good as Clement before 40,419 at Camden Yards.

"Rodrigo Lopez," Francona said, "is as tough on us as any pitcher in the league."

Lopez went 3-1 with a 1.78 ERA vs. the Sox last season, and for eight innings last night he and Clement were locked into the rarest of American League sightings: a real pitchers' duel. By night's end, each had thrown 110 pitches, each had gone eight innings, and neither had allowed an earned run.

Ramon Vazquez, playing in place of an ill Bill Mueller, knocked in the only run in the second inning with some good old National League baseball. With Kevin Millar on third (double), Jason Varitek on second (single, error on Miguel Tejada), and one out, Vazquez hit the ball to the right side of the infield, scoring Millar.

After that it was all Lopez and Clement. Lopez fanned six, all looking, including Manny Ramirez twice. In the third, Ramirez looked at a fastball on the inside corner. He had words for plate umpire Bill Welke and pointed to the plate with one hand, then the other hand. In the eighth, Ramirez looked at a fastball down the middle that crossed the plate at his kneecap. He pointed at the plate again, and Welke stared Ramirez halfway back to the dugout.

Lopez did nothing to help the slumping David Ortiz and Edgar Renteria. Ortiz, with a man aboard and two outs in the eighth, flied to right, where Sammy Sosa made a leaping catch against the high wall. Ortiz is 5 for his last 38 (.132) over the last 10 games.

"No pop," Ortiz said. "My power is not there."

Renteria doesn't have a hit since the start of the Boston Marathon. Since his third-inning double Monday against the Blue Jays, the new shortstop is 0 for 15 with one walk. His ninth-inning fly to right, where Sosa made a diving catch, lowered his average to .203. He's hitting .125 (4 for 32) on the road.